[74] _Spare the middle wine._] Hesiod says that we should use the middle of the cask more sparingly, that we might enjoy the best wine the longer. It was the ancient opinion that wine was best in the middle, oil at the top, and honey at the bottom. GRÆVIUS. This opinion of Hesiod is discussed by Plutarch in his Symposiacs, iii. 7, and by Macrobius in his Saturnalia, vii. 12. [75] _As in laughter._] Και τε κασιγνητω γελασας επι μαρτυρα θεσθαι. The interpreters say, Etiam cum fratre ludens, testem adhibeto. But I should place the comma after _fratre_, and join _ludens_ with _testem adhibeto_. “Even in a compact with your brother, have a witness: you may do it laughingly, or as if in jest.” [76] _With garment gather’d in a knot behind._] πυγοστολος, adorning the hinder parts, seems to refer to some meretricious distinction of dress. Solon compelled women of loose character to appear in public in flowered robes. Solomon in that beautiful chapter of the Proverbs has a similar allusion. “There met him a woman _with the attire of a harlot_, and subtle of heart.” Ch. vii. 10. [77] _Prattling with gay speech._] With her much fair speech she caused him to yield: with the flattering of her lips she forced him. PROVERBS, vii. 21. [78] _Arise_ _Before the sun._] In the words of Hesiod there is made mention of one rising of the Pleiads, which is heliacal, and of a double setting: the time of the rising may be referred to the 11th of May. The first setting, which indicated ploughing-time, was _cosmical_; when, as the sun rises, the Pleiads sink below the opposite horizon, which, in the time of Hesiod, happened about the beginning of November. The second setting is somewhat obscurely designated in the line They in his lustre forty days lie hid; and is the _heliacal_ setting, which happened the third of April, and after which the Pleiads were immerged in the sun’s splendour forty days. Hesiod, however, speaks as if he confounded the two settings, for no one would suppose but that the first-mentioned setting was that after which the Pleiads are said to be hidden previous to the harvest. But his words are to be explained with more indulgence, since he could not be ignorant of the time that intervened between the season of ploughing and that of harvest. LE CLERC. [79] _’Tis time to sow._] In the original, begin _ploughing_; by which is meant the last ploughing, when they turned up the soil to receive the seed. Thus Virgil, Georg. 1: First let the morning Pleiades go down: From the sun’s rays emerge the Gnossian crown, Ere to th’ unwilling earth thou trust the seed. WARTON.